Above photo: Former Oil Minister Victor Zamora (L) and former Immigration Director Marcel Rivas (R). Twitter/ @Opinion_Bolivia.
Former Oil Minister and former Immigration Director are accused of political persecution and corruption.
The Bolivian Attorney General’s Office issued warrants for the arrest of Victor Zamora and Marcel Rivas for the crimes of corruption and political persecution. They were part of the coup-born regime led by Jeanine Añez (2019-2020).
Former Oil Minister Zamora is under investigation for the crimes of influence abuse and breach of duty. He allegedly committed these crimes when he was in charge of Bolivian Fiscal Oilfields (YPFB) amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Prosecutor’s Office in La Paz requested information from the Migration General Direction and the police to know the former minister’s whereabouts.
“Zamora was not at his residence nor his father’s apartment,” prosecutor Alexis Vilela said.
The Immigration ex-Director Rivas has two accusations against him: one for favoring the departure of other ex-authorities and another for political persecution.
“Rivas used the Institution for political purposes, to persecute former officials, politicians, journalists, diplomats, and businessmen. Forty-two percent of the 1,061 immigration alerts he circulated were illegal,” Vilela added.
This weekend, a court determined the preventive detention of Rivas in the San Pedro prison in La Paz.
These new arrest warrants join those already issued against former Interior Minister Arturo Murillo, Defense Minister Fernando Lopez, and former Interior Vice Minister Javier Issa.
According to police investigations, Murillo and Issa fled to the U.S. as Lopez escaped to Brazil.